The Mistletoe Effect VII: Dani & Nico
by Ultrawoman
Summary: Festive OneShot. The effect of mistletoe on Dani and Nico during an AU Christmas post-Season 1. Dani offers to host the Hawks Christmas party; Nico is impressed.


**A/N: So, this is a continuation of a multi-fandom/multi-pairing series I started in 2006, with each story being a one-shot in a different fandom, bringing my fave ship together under the mistletoe. I have different sandboxes to play in these days, and so there is more. Oh, and please note, I haven't seen any Season 2 Necessary Roughness yet, so this is just post-Season 1. Hope you enjoy! Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to all :)**

_**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to people that aren't me!**_

The Mistletoe Effect VII - Dani & Nico

Dani had started to wonder what she had been thinking when she offered to host the Hawks Christmas party in her house. It hadn't really been a conscious decision. One minute she was in a meeting being told how plans were going to hell because the venue had been vandalised, and the next she seemed to be telling the coach it was just fine for everyone to descend on her home, two days before Christmas, to party like it was 1999, or whatever it was people did at parties these days.

As it turned out, it really wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. The kids had helped out a lot. Ray Jay was so excited to be told he could join in the festivities, hanging out with T.K. and the other players, he pretty much did anything Dani asked him and then some. Lindsey wasn't quite so enthralled, until her Mom agreed to Winter coming over and being a guest at the party too. Dani hoped rather than believed that the younger members of the team remembered her daughter was much younger than she appeared!

An hour before the party started, Matt had shown up with extra booze. There was an awkward moment in the entrance to the kitchen when he bumped his head on some falling Christmas decorations - a garland of holly and other greenery, including mistletoe.

It was just a couple of weeks since Dani and Matt realised their fledgling relationship was going nowhere. They liked each other well enough, liked the idea of being together, and yet in practice it just wasn't working. They were very different people. She had her kids to think of, he wanted his own family one day, and that wasn't her plan. It was clear within those first couple of months of really being together that fantastic sex and friendship aside, they couldn't really made a pair. Their future plans didn't fit together, and sometimes they just didn't get along as well as they should.

"Thanks for bringing this stuff over," said Dani as she slid past Matt, giving him a very deliberate peck on the cheek. "I can handle it from here."

She wanted him out of the house. It wasn't Matt's fault, not really, but even though she knew things couldn't work out between them, he was still hot, and Christmas was still going to feel strange and lonely with no man by her side. Of course she had the kids and she loved them to death, but it wasn't quite the same.

"You okay, Mom?" asked Lindsay as she appeared down the stairs and found Dani staring at the front door.

"Sure, yeah," she shook her head. "I was just... Oh, Lindsay," she said as she looked at her daughter then. "Sweetheart, you look beautiful," she told her.

"Thanks," the teen blushed a little. "I figured tonight was the night for kind of a fancy dress, right?"

"Right," Dani smiled, glad to see that her daughter was dressed so nicely and not at all in a slutty way.

The only problem was how grown up she looked. It made her mother feel a little too old. Not that she had much time to focus on it. People were going to start arriving before long and things still needed to be done. She rushed off back to the kitchen without another moment's thought.

It was still miraculous to Dani that she'd got everything done in time. By the time Coach Parnell and his wife, T.K. and Vivica, and all the other players and partners began to arrive, she felt completely in control. The only problem she had when she stepped back to survey the scene was how lonely she felt. Ray Jay was in one corner talking to Winter, whilst Lindsay laughed at a joke one of the younger football players was telling. T.K. and Vivica were slow-dancing, and even Matt had brought a date along. It really hadn't occurred to Dani until this moment that she would be the only one here without a partner, but then, perhaps that wasn't strictly true...

"You've done a wonderful job here, Dr Santino," said Nico as he appeared beside her, a cup of mulled wine in his hand for her.

"Thank you," she said in response to both the compliment and the drink she took from him. "It didn't turn out so bad, did it?"

"It was the quite the undertaking, and I think you handled it beautifully," the fixer assured her. "But then, that is how you handle most things."

Dani almost blushed at the over-abundance of compliments. Nico was a nice guy, a very nice guy actually, but he wasn't usually so forthcoming with the flattery.

"How much of this have you had to drink, Nico?" she asked, gesturing between her cup and his own with a smile.

"Is your own confidence really so worn down, Dani, that you think I'd have to be drunk to compliment you?" he asked, rolling his eyes. "Or am I just such a bad guy you think I lied before about always being truthful?"

She was about to come back at him with an angry retort at that suggestion but didn't bother when she realised there was a smirk on his lips and a glint in his eye. He was teasing her, again! He'd gotten pretty good at that lately, now that Dani thought about it. She and Nico, they just got along.

In the beginning, she wasn't sure how to take him, and wondered if he had the same problem with her. At this point they were used to each others intricacies of character. They were both fixers in their own way and had to work closely together so many times. She never had to wonder if he had her back, because she always knew he had, and hoped by now he could say the same.

"Thank you, Nico," she said then, seemingly out of the blue given the long silence that had passed between them. "For everything that you do," she explained when he looked at her curiously. "I don't feel like any of us say that to you enough."

"I just do my job, Dani," he reminded her with a smile. "It's really not a big deal."

"It is to me," she argued, losing her train of thought a little as she heard Lindsay laugh and looked over to see her daughter clinging to a football player in a disconcerting way.

"It's fine," Nico assured her, leaning in closer to whisper in her ear. "You can stop squinting at them. He knows she's only fifteen, he's just being friendly," he promised her. "He knows he'll never play football again, or even walk a straight line, if he lays a hand on her."

Dani was a little bowled over by the statement. Clearly Nico had told all the players, particularly the young good-looking ones that might be of interest to Lindsay, that she was decidedly off-limits. Being nice was fine, but any more than that and their knee-caps belonged to Nico, or presumably one of his associates who tore off such pieces of the human body for kicks.

"Thank you," she smiled up at him, a little startled to find him so close when she turned - she was sure he hadn't been before.

Dani seemed to realise all of a sudden that she wasn't breathing and made a particular effort to do so when her eyes met Nico's own. He couldn't be thinking what she thought he was thinking, she was certain, and yet his lips were awfully close to her own and she really didn't mind.

It was a brief kiss, no more than a few seconds, and yet Dani's eyes had fallen shut and she savoured that moment for as long as it lasted. It wasn't something she had much thought about before, kissing Nico, and yet now that it had happened, she had no objections to a repeat performance if it were offered.

"Where did that come from?" she asked breathlessly when they had parted.

"I assumed it was there for a purpose?" replied Nico, pointing up above their heads to where the mistletoe hung. "Merry Christmas, Dani," he said then as he slipped away into the crowd.

Dani couldn't help the girlish giggle that escaped her as she looked up at the greenery over her head, a hand going unconsciously to her lips for a moment.

"Merry Christmas, Nico," she said, even though he was already gone.

If it hadn't been before, it certainly felt as if it could be now.


End file.
